[7] According to reporting by radio show This American Life, which ran an episode in 2014 called "A Not-So-Simple Majority",[8] the Orthodox Jewish population and the remainder of the District had lived under a system of détente, where private Jewish schools, or yeshivas, of the Orthodox would not receive additional scrutiny in meeting state standards, if the Orthodox population would refrain from voting in school district elections.
[12] In an official response to an investigation of the sale, New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner stated the East Ramapo board “abused its discretion by hastily approving the sale.” The 12 acre campus, assessed at $10.2 million (market value) by the Assessor’s Office of Clarkstown was given only a $3.2 million appraisal by the school board's own attorney, Albert D’Agostino.
[14] In July, the new state Education Commissioner John King put a hold on the district's sale of Colton Elementary to Congregation Bais Malka/Hebrew Academy for Special Children with similar questions over the appraisal and bidding process as dogged the blocked sale of the Hillcrest school.
[citation needed] On August 31, 2011, New York State Office of the Comptroller released an audit of the Board, for the period July 1, 2008 to April 13, 2010.
[15] The report criticizes the district for a number of serious lapses including failing to put $2.4 million in professional services contracts out to bid, allowing three senior school board members to receive health care through the school district's insurance pool after they failed to make $15,672 in payments, and failing to maintain proper inventory controls over $2.4 million in textbooks purchased for students not attending public schools, as required under state law.
In fact, the District's audited financial statement showed a June 30, 2010, fund balance of $17,793,047, substantially higher than public estimates.
The report states: "The board, along with district officials, failed to fulfill its stewardship, oversight and leadership responsibilities when it failed to establish a proper control environment, implement its own adopted policy and establish policies and procedures required by sound business practices."
[16][17] During the year 2011, an article titled "Regions Aging Schools Crumble as Finances Falter" by Cathey O'Donnell and Gary Stern, was featured in a local newspaper, The Journal News, which is well known throughout the Lower Hudson Valley of Westchester County, New York.
The article was about several old school buildings within the region that were in a current state of disrepair, how much it would cost to fix them and which if any might need to be demolished.
[8] In November 2014 a state-appointed monitor charged with investigating the district delivered a sharply critical assessment.
It also included an increase of over $5 million in transportation for the private schools that the district was obliged to pay for, per New York State law.
[28][29] The plaintiffs charged that by using at-large voting, it was impossible for minority candidates to win competitive elections in the district.
[30] In 2020, Judge Seibel ruled in favor of the NAACP, finding that the district's election system violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
[34][35] In January 2021, a court subsequently ruled that the district owed over $4.3 million in legal fees to the NYCLU who had brought the original suit.
On June 21, 2022, a second budget proposal was rejected by voters by a 2-1 margin, with a majority of opposed votes from wards with a large Jewish population.